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To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Kindle Edition

by Heather Cox Richardson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 416 ratings
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Democracy Awakening, “the most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses” (Los Angeles Times)

When Abraham Lincoln helped create the Republican Party on the eve of the Civil War, his goal was to promote economic opportunity for all Americans, not just the slaveholding Southern planters who steered national politics. Yet, despite the egalitarian dream at the heart of its founding, the Republican Party quickly became mired in a fundamental identity crisis. Would it be the party of democratic ideals? Or would it be the party of moneyed interests? In the century and a half since, Republicans have vacillated between these two poles, with dire economic, political, and moral repercussions for the entire nation.

In To Make Men Free, celebrated historian Heather Cox Richardson traces the shifting ideology of the Grand Old Party from the antebellum era to the Great Recession, revealing the insidious cycle of boom and bust that has characterized the Party since its inception. While in office, progressive Republicans like Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower revived Lincoln's vision of economic freedom and expanded the government, attacking the concentration of wealth and nurturing upward mobility. But they and others like them have been continually thwarted by powerful business interests in the Party. Their opponents appealed to Americans' latent racism and xenophobia to regain political power, linking taxation and regulation to redistribution and socialism. The results of the Party's wholesale embrace of big business are all too familiar: financial collapses like the Panic of 1893, the Great Depression in 1929, and the Great Recession in 2008. With each passing decade, with each missed opportunity and political misstep, the schism within the Republican Party has grown wider, pulling the GOP ever further from its founding principles.

Expansive and authoritative, To Make Men Free is a sweeping history of the Party that was once America's greatest political hope -- and, time and time again, has proved its greatest disappointment.
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  4. Publisher
    Basic Books
  5. Publication date
    September 23, 2014
  6. File size
    2108 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A readable and provocative account of the many paths that Republicans have taken to their current state of confusion.”―New York Times Book Review

“The most comprehensive account of the GOP and its competing impulses... an important contribution to understanding where we are today.”―Los Angeles Times

“The book offers a lively survey of Republican politics in all its diversity, from the ‘transformational presidency' of Abraham Lincoln (to borrow a 21st-century term) to the conservative ascendancy of Ronald Reagan.”―Washington Post

“A rich portrait of the thinking and times of Abraham Lincoln and those closest to him in the founding of the Republican Party... perceptive and persuasive.... Readers of Richardson's history of the GOP will come away with a good sense of the complex path that led the party to the abnegation of the Lincoln legacy.”―Washington Spectator

“[Richardson's] theory of the party's historical cycle is intriguing.”―New Republic

“Sharp and readable.”―Open Letters Monthly

“[An] opinionated history...Richardson aptly ends by wondering if the modern Republican Party ‘will find a way to stay committed to the ideals of its founders.'”―Publishers Weekly

“Richardson makes a bold, pertinent argument.... A hard-hitting study that will surely resonate with ongoing attempts to regenerate the GOP.”―Kirkus

“At its Lincolnian best, the G.O.P. has been not just grand but good. In To Make Men Free, the eminent political historian Heather Cox Richardson superbly brings the Republican Party's history to life, while offering sharp and often surprising interpretations of its rises and declines, when it heeded Lincoln's legacy and when it did not.”―Sean Wilentz, author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

“Heather Cox Richardson tells a great story, full of fascinating figures, of how the Republican Party has enjoyed extraordinary political success in a country full of poor people, while doing much to serve the rich. It's a vital chapter in the history of American conservatism.”―Eric Rauchway, Professor of History, University of California, Davis

“In To Make Men Free, one of our most admired historians takes on one of the most important topics of our past and present: the 160-year story of the Republican Party. From Abraham Lincoln to George W. Bush, from Radical Republicans to Movement Conservatives, Heather Cox Richardson recounts the GOP's dramatic history with unimpeachable insights and crisp, vivid writing. How did the anti-slavery party become the party of the Solid South? How did the anti-trust party of Theodore Roosevelt become the party of Wall Street and the Club for Growth? In this brisk account, Richardson make sense of a twisting tale that shapes our lives every day.”―T.J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

“Heather Cox Richardson has written a much-needed book: a comprehensive and balanced history of the Republican Party. The prose is engaging, the research is deep, the argument is persuasive; To Make Men Free is the work of a major talent at the top of her craft.”―Ari Kelman, Bancroft Prize-winning author of A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek

“Heather Cox Richardson's concise history of the Republican Party shows how a party that once saw government as the guarantor of equal opportunity for all morphed into today's intransigently anti-government, anti-tax, anti-regulation GOP. Richardson convincingly demonstrates that the Republican Party has oscillated throughout its history between equal opportunity and protection of property rights as its lodestar. Those seeking clues to how the GOP might evolve in the future will want to read this important book.”―Ruy Teixeira, co-author of The Emerging Democratic Majority

About the Author

Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian and professor of history at Boston College. Her daily newsletter, Letters from an American, has over a half million subscribers. The author of Democracy Awakening, How the South Won the Civil War, and Wounded Knee, she splits her time between Boston and Maine.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00L4FSSZY
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; 1st edition (September 23, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 23, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2108 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 418 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 416 ratings

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Heather Cox Richardson

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
416 global ratings
Four stars are not the author's fault
4 Stars
Four stars are not the author's fault
Heather Cox Richardson is a brilliant professor of American History. I have watched just about every video of her talks on YouTube and Facebook. I enjoy her Letters From An American everyday. If you want the real history of American Politics you can't go wrong with this book. You will be surprised at how often what is happening today in Washington has happened many times before. Not much comfort can be derived from that knowledge. It is more of a cry for us to get involved.That being said, the publisher, Basic Books, should be ashamed at the near complete lack of proofreading. We Kindle readers are quite accustomed to errors in our books but this one stands out for the sheer number of repeated errors. An editor or proofreader would not have to look beyond the first page to see the massive dropcap obscuring the line below it. No worries, you might say, there is only a dropcap at the beginning of each chapter. No! There are several dropcaps in each chapter, something I have not seen before. There are not sections in the chapters so it is some sort of style choice, I suppose. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that several times the dropcap is missing altogether...no letter at all where the dropcap was supposed to be.I will let the other errors go unmentioned since they might be construed as picking nits. In the future, I may peruse the sample so I know what I can expect from the publisher's proofreading.
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Top reviews from the United States

Lois
5.0 out of 5 stars Book
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2024
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Everything Richardson writes is outstanding.
One person found this helpful
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Traci
5.0 out of 5 stars The book traces the decline and corruption of a once dignified and principled party.
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2024
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Richardson is a brilliant historian who shows how a great and once-principled party lost its way and became the opposite of what it was during the middle of the 19th century.
3 people found this helpful
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Robert V. Rose, retired education researcher
5.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting essay on how liberals view modern conservatives.
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2014
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I read this book after seeing the author interviewed on BookTV and thought it would be an interesting history.

The first half of the book indeed was. The author, a university history professor, starts with the statement that Abraham Lincoln, one of everyone's favorites, was the first Republican president who believed in equality and economic power for the middle class, favoring neither the very rich nor the vast poorer class. Theodore Roosevelt, another "true Republican", felt the same way, running for president in 1912 as the Progressive third party candidate, probably shifting enough votes from Taft to ensure Wilson's victory.

The author claims that Eisenhower (one of my own favorities) also was "moderate", in that he again favored those in the middle, finally warning us against the "military-industrial complex".

For a while I thought the author's enthusiasm for good will toward middle-of-the-road Republicans was genuine, and that her anti-modern conservative comments were only a sop for her more liberal university colleagues.

But in the last hundred pages her true colors show. She execrates the "movement Republicans" who emerged in the 1950s, with all sorts of depreciating negative words. Among those she obviously loathes are William Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Nixon et al. She insists that Republicans have been over-taken by "neocons" who are racist, anti-woman, anti-logical, and lying allies of Roger Ailes and Fox News, who only care about the needs of the greedy rich.

Ironically, the author claims that modern conservatives are anti-education, apparently oblivious to the fact that our modern "progressive education" of John Dewey (a determined Trotsyite favored by Lenin) and Bill Ayers (Obama's friend who told Chavez how "our" education could help further socialism in Venezuela) is actually liberal Democrat party education, and that it has failed.

On the other hand, the concluding phrase in the book is "...perhaps, the Republican party will find a way to stay committed to its original founders".

I for one, believe that our non-racist, pro-woman, pro-prosperity Republican party is already there, and that's how I intend to vote next month.
18 people found this helpful
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Mickey Long
5.0 out of 5 stars Exposing Big Merchants' Mercenaries, From the Civil War Forward
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2019
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Good and important material for all to read; she nearly predicted Trump-McConnell. Love how this book assembles much information in a manner that tracks the shifts in both the Republican and Democrat Parties, mostly based around the "Movement Conservatives" as she defines them. Better, would be to call them Big Merchants' Mercenaries in both parties. Tactically, they employ stealth as a weapon to engage in battle to control politicians, appoint judges, and government administrators. All this usurps such activities away from the governed, the people (as Lincoln taught at Gettysburg). These business groups use the Constitution as a wolf uses sheep for clothing. Better still, she uses her historian skills to show how this effort by these Big Merchants' Mercenaries (paid by the wealthy folks) is not new. She tracks back their same Republican arguments to before the Civil War. She's wrong in thinking they are Conservatives. They don't seek to conserve anything but their own wealth, to increase and concentrate it. They are super merchants, very rich, against mom & pops and small entrepreneurs. They are today's Globalists. Democracies are friction to their profits. The author does point out, though, that nothing is new, but they're winning more than before. They use media better than ever because collectively they control billions (even trillions) and through media they control too many of us.
27 people found this helpful
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fluteguy
4.0 out of 5 stars Read the book first and consider it in terms of a basic conflict in American history
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2014
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I am wondering how several amazon reviewers are able to comment supposedly so knowingly and in such claimed depth on a book that was released only today, September 23, 2014. Are you all professional reviewers who have received advance copies from the publisher?

The central thesis of the book (as per the excerpt in the Washington Post last Sunday and several of the reviews I have read) is that there is a conflict in the Republican party between egalitarian ideals (Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ike) and property rights advocates / apologists for the entitlements of the wealthy (Andrew Johnson,Reagan, Paul Ryan) and that this conflict has in fact been central from the founding of the party. I have not yet received my copy so i cannot claim any more than this. However the conflict between equality and property rights is as old as this country, cf the Federalists (Alexander Hamilton, 1780:"unite the interests and credit of rich individuals with the state." "All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and well-born, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give, therefore, to the first class a distinct.permanent share in the government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and... ever maintain good government") and the original Jeffersonian Democrats (George Mason, June 12, 1776, Virginia Declaration of Rights [which does form a part of the Virginia Constitution still in effect today]: "Section 1: That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Section 2. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people;... Section 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration." Jefferson, July 4, 1776 Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed")

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.'s monumental Pulitzer Prize winning "The Age of Jackson"(Little Brown, 1945) discusses this essential tension in American history in the period prior to Lincoln and the formation of the Republican Party. I highly suggest reading it. Also highly relevant to the discussion is Republican Teddy Roosevelt's "New Nationalism" speech of Aug. 31, 2010 available on Wikisource.

For a cogent but somewhat critical review of "To Make Men Free" see the Geoffrey Kabaservice review in the New Republic from which the following: "Richardson is not the first to note that the Republican Party has oscillated between moderate and conservative phases. Still, her theory of the party’s historical cycle is intriguing, and her hypothesis that the Confederacy was in a sense reborn in the GOP’s conservative incarnations is both audacious and disturbing." And or read Kabaservice's book, "Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (Studies in Postwar American Political Development)". Skip the Wall Street Journal review which misses the whole point and attempts to change the historically valid terms of the discussion from equality vs property to liberty vs order: ("The continuing tension in the Republican Party is not between advocates of equality and protectors of property but between proponents of liberty and proponents of order.".)

I look forward to reading what is sure to be an evocative and thought provoking book.
34 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Charles Siegel
5.0 out of 5 stars great book
Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2022
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All sorts of things I didn't know on almost every page and very well written.
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Ronald
5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect transaction
Reviewed in Germany on October 31, 2020
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Great customer delight from this transaction. Everything top top top. Thanks for the beautiful book.
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Thomas A. Regelski
5.0 out of 5 stars like this reader
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2018
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This volume is a very important contribution to understanding US politics since the rise of the Republican party with Lincoln. It demonstrates, first, the initial political ideology in favor of economic ideology, and then the quick reversal of that ideology to favor wealth over the ordinary voter. It chronicles the revival of GOP original ideology in the Progressive movement of the 1920s-30s and its bling opposition to the New Deal. We also get substantial views of Rockefeller Republicanism, Regan Republicanism, Bush1&2k Republicanism and their various implications and many problems. In several respect it is a kind of "expose" of Republican ideology and its many contradictions over time. A must read for Republicans who have lost their way in the changing ideological wars within the part, including the Movement Conservatives, and certainly of major insight to political critics who, like this reader, were unaware of the vastly important changes over time of the party. Having read this, it is difficult any longer to speak of "the" Republican party/ideology, rather than refer specifically to a melange of ever-changing positions, some of which cancel earlier ones out. Too bad it covers only until the Obama challenge, until 2014. GOP and Conservative readers will be surprised to learn of the many twists and turns of their party, and of the loss of its founding message of economic, social, and political equality.
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SJP
5.0 out of 5 stars Explains a lot.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2020
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A terrific book that helps explain US politics, particularly what is going on there right now. This is history, written by a professor with a knack for describing complex issues with simplicity. It certainly helped me cut through the political chatter that surrounds us these days and understand the context of current events. Highly recommended.
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Avid Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2019
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Well written and well researched book. Helps to explain how why the party of Lincoln has moved from wanting equality of opportunity for everyone to become a party of rich, elitist, religious conservatives. Stops as Obama elected. Recommended to those interested in US history.
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